


Too Tall

by BexYZ



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Awkward Flirting, F/M, Fluff, Hogwarts Eighth Year, They are clueless and silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:40:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29008431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BexYZ/pseuds/BexYZ
Summary: Draco is too tall and keeps accidentally bumping into Hermione. It's distracting.(Updated to include Draco's perspective. He is just as adorably ridiculous.)
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 43
Kudos: 315





	1. Chapter 1

This wouldn’t be a problem if he wasn’t so freakishly tall.

It seemed silly given the events of the past year. Finding the horcruxes, battling and defeating Voldemort, trying to assimilate to normal civilian life as an eighth year at Hogwarts. Those were real problems. But Hermione couldn’t think about those things right now.

Right now all she could think about was his stupid leg against her thigh for the third stupid time in the third stupid class today. 

Initially she had struggled against being paired with Draco Malfoy in most of their classes upon returning to Hogwarts, but she had to admit that it was refreshing to work with someone equal to her academic skill. He had never asked to copy her notes in class or depended on her to do his share of group work. He rarely even complained when she tried to take the lead on projects. 

Malfoy was trying to make amends. He knew the way people looked at him now. He was trying to keep his head down, certainly, but it seemed like more than that. He wasn’t being polite to her just to make other people like him. He actually seemed to tolerate her. Maybe even more than that, but she probably shouldn’t go down this line of thought while she could still feel the heat from his knee radiating through her robes.

The most frustrating part was that he didn’t even seem to notice. He stood at least an inch or two above the rest of the students in their year, making him an entire head and shoulders over Hermione. He probably just thought he was hitting the table leg. He was constantly having to fold his long limbs to avoid knocking into things. And it seemed as though one of his most common targets, if inadvertently, was her.

It appeared more and more common for his leg to bump into hers under a work table or his elbow to graze her arm as they were taking notes. They worked at the same pace, much faster than most of the other students, meaning they needed their potion ingredients at the same time. This led to him constantly being in her way in the supply closet, reaching over her shoulders and pressing against her back to collect the items on the tallest shelves.

She had learned to control her outward reactions when she felt his contact. She didn’t want to flinch or jerk away from him and make him think she was still harboring ill will against him. But internally, each brush of his shoulder, each knock of his ankle against hers, each time he reached across her work space to borrow an ink blotter, she felt a prickling in her skin. She was hyper-aware of his presence. Even now, she was struggling to focus on the professor’s lecture while her heartbeat echoed in her ears and she fervently hoped no one else could hear it. She struggled to keep her features impassive.

Because the most frustrating part in all of this was that none of it seemed to affect him at all. Nothing in his features indicated that touching her was different from touching a wall. He was just so used to being big that naturally things would be in his way, whether it meant hitting a table leg or ducking under a low door frame or spending his third class in a row brushing up against Hermione as he sat across from her and took his neatly written notes.

She knew she could just as easily angle herself away from him. A casual change in position would betray nothing. She could tell herself that it was annoying and that she wanted it to stop, but if she were honest with herself it sent a thrill through her each time it happened. 

Malfoy had always been attractive, if in an obnoxious, self-assured way. But this new Malfoy, this new person who was respectful to her and her classmates, who was intelligent and thoughtful in his discussions, who looked at her with humor and friendship instead of condescension - this young man had slowly stolen her attention and eventually her affection. Which made it all the more irritating that the reactions he produced in her seemed to only flow one direction.

His current barely there contact was starting to irritate her skin. It was getting itchy and ticklish on top of the usual hormonal sparks. After a few more minutes of debate, she finally decided that if he could treat her as a piece of the scenery she could pretend to do the same. She leaned into the feeling and pressed her knee solidly against his, showing no sign that anything had changed despite the electricity she felt sparking up her leg.

In her peripheral vision, she saw his quill hand freeze mid-word for a fraction of a second before returning to his parchment. She sensed rather than saw him swallow hard. Then she felt his leg move parallel to her own, his entire calf touching hers from knee to ankle. 

Maybe she wasn't just a fixture to him after all. She chanced a glance in his direction and saw a pair of gray eyes searching her face for something. She felt her face flush as she realized that maybe, just possibly, all of these "accidents" were anything but. 

He must have found what he was looking for as he moved his other leg to gently bracket her own between both of his without moving his gaze. He raised an eyebrow, silently seeking approval of their new seating arrangement. She gave him a shy smile and a nod before turning her head back down towards her unusually vague notes.

The grin he gave his own parchment sent flutters down her spine in the best possible way. Maybe he wasn't too tall after all. 

Maybe he was just right.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco's perspective on height and Hermione.

The first time was an honest mistake.

The second time wasn't really on purpose either.

The third time though...  
___  
When Draco Malfoy returned to Hogwarts in September, he had expected to stand out. In general, eighth years possessed a unique status as the first of their kind due to the interruptions in education the previous year. His Slytherin designation alone lent itself to a sense of wariness from the other three houses. And finally, no one could be as involved as he was in the happenings of the previous year without drawing a healthy dose of negative attention from most others around him.

Standing almost half a foot taller than the average student didn't help his quest for anonymity, or at least inconspicuousness. It's hard to hide in a crowd when you're literally too tall to hide.

Draco’s growth spurt had occurred a bit later than many other boys his age, meaning most were already past the awkward adaptation phase he now reluctantly experienced. It was hard to position yourself in space when you took up far more room than you did even three months before. He had bruises on his knees from banging into his table at mealtimes. He had more than one bump on his head from low-hanging light fixtures over the library study tables.

And he couldn't seem to avoid touching _her. ___

__It was one thing to have almost every class with his former rival. It was another for all of his professors to insist on pairing him with Hermione Granger for assignments and projects, insisting they would work well as intellectual equals. It was nice to finally be noticed for his academic achievement instead of his family's notariety, but he couldn't help wondering if she was also meant to keep an eye on him. Whatever the reasoning, he had found a compatible study partner who was surprisingly less overbearing and controlling than he expected. She had once alluded to being tired of the responsibility for others' learning and wanted to focus instead on her own personal academic opportunities during this final year._ _

__After sincerely thanking her for speaking at his hearing and apologizing for his years of wrongdoing, they enjoyed a cautious truce. This led to an awkward alliance before transforming to its current iteration of unwittingly comfortable collaborators. They grew more accustomed to each others' study habits and work styles. As they relaxed into each other's company, their banter transformed from irritated insults to mildly snarky playfulness. During their more recent study sessions, they had even been genuinely joking and laughing._ _

__The more time they spent together, the more he noticed her more inconspicuous quirks. If she was reading a long passage from a text, she would sometimes repeatedly braid a small section of hair over her right eye and unravel it again. If they sat in the armchairs in the corner of the library’s medieval history section, she would kick off her shoes and sit with her feet pulled up under her as she worked. She twisted her mouth and chewed on the corner of her cheek when she was working out a difficult arithmancy problem and she bounced her knee when she was tired in order to try and stay awake._ _

__She'd grown into her bushy hair and her freckles and her eyes sparkled when she read an interesting new fact and she had a special smile he wished was just for him when he helped her fix the measurements in their potions essays. But presumably everybody had noticed that._ _

__He realized he was attracted to her the first time it had happened. They were sitting side by side during Charms when he leaned over to pull his book out of his bag. To counterbalance his weight, he stretched his opposite foot out inadvertently running his entire calf, ankle to knee, against hers. He could feel her stiffen at the same time he froze, electricity zapping up from his extremity and blurring in his brain. Thankfully he quickly snapped out of his fog and immediately sat up straighter than a broomstick. Neither of them said anything about it, but from that point forward he was always more aware of her body in relation to his than with any of his other classmates._ _

__The second time it happened, she had gone to collect her potion ingredients from the supply closet a few moments ahead of him. She needed the porcupine quills that Slughorn had moved to the top shelf earlier this term. Even on her tiptoes, she was struggling to reach the bottom of the shelf, much less anything stored on top of it. They’d been working together peacefully for weeks at this point, so he followed his natural instinct to reach over her and retrieve the jar for her. She hadn’t heard his approach, however, and fell back on her heels at the same time he leaned forward, causing his entire front to press against her back in a not-so-unwelcome way. He heard her gasp in surprise as he fought the urge to lower his face to breathe in the fruity smell of her shampoo. He prepared himself for a tongue-lashing about personal space or at the very least startling her, but none came. They stood like that a beat longer until he realized pressing his entire body against hers for much longer would lead to even more embarrassing physical reactions and moved away. She quietly thanked him for procuring the quills for her, distinctly avoided looking him in the face, and ducked around him carefully to avoid even their robes touching further. He noticed her cheeks were pink and her breathing shallow, and it suddenly occurred to him that maybe this wasn’t a totally one-sided infatuation after all._ _

__This is what led to the third, fourth, fifth, and beyond interactions. He kept pushing his luck, brushing against her in classes, touching her fingers as they passed materials back and forth, and eventually leaning up against her to grab things that his long arms could easily have reached without moving. Each time, he felt the same charge of attraction tingling out from the point of contact. But frustratingly, she no longer seemed affected. Maybe the incident in the potions closet was a fluke. Maybe what he’d thought was her blush had just been a trick of the light. Maybe he was delusional and starting to make her concerned for his hand-eye coordination. And his sanity._ _

__She never reacted or reciprocated. He was starting to think she never would. He almost wished she’d sound off at him like she used to, just to know he affected her in some way at all._ _

__Then one day, as he brushed his knee against her robes, testing how just close he could get to her without actually touching her he felt unexpected contact. She. Pushed. Back._ _

__Surely it was a mistake. She hadn’t meant to do it. She probably felt his movement and thought it was a draft or an errant fly she was trying to avoid. But then her knee didn’t leave._ _

__As a test, he moved his foot closer to hers, pressing more of his leg against hers. She would definitely notice this and know it wasn’t a mistake. Maybe she would blush or maybe she would slap him, but there was no way she would ignore it, right?_ _

__He chanced a glance at her face and found her eyes already trying to meet his own. She knew this was purposeful even if she didn’t know why. He might as well seize this opportunity and make his intentions known. He took his other knee and trapped her leg between his own, locking his ankles around her and looking up at her to see if he had crossed a line and earned himself a hex in the face._ _

__Instead he saw the familiar flush from weeks earlier and she bit her lip in a tantalizing way that caused his brain to short circuit in a manner he’d have to examine more later in the privacy of his room. She looked back down at her notes, but nodded slightly in silent approval._ _

__He tried to hide the grin on his face, but found he wasn’t too bothered by his failure to do so. He tried to refocus on the professor’s lecture, but his mind started wondering how else he could bring that color to her cheeks._ _

__He found he didn’t mind partnering with her on one more project after all._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a fluffy little follow up because dorky high schoolers are too funny. Thanks for reading!
> 
> Comments and comaraderie are, as always, most welcome!

**Author's Note:**

> My first HP fic I've written after returning to HP fan fiction after 14 years (oof I'm old).
> 
> Thanks for reading some utterly silly fluffiness. 
> 
> Comments/constructive criticism appreciated. :)


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